Typewriting machine



Aug. 17 1926.

G. W. RENZ TYPEWRITING MACHINE Filed Nov. 11. 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 x L MM R V. 0 N n ILZJA 6 B \N w 8. Q Q Q .m o

WITNESSES Aug. 17 1926.

G. W. RENZ TYPEWRITING MACHINE Filed Nov. 11.

1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

WITNESSES ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 17, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE W. BENZ, OF NEW YORK, N, Y., ASSIGNOR TO REMINGTON TYPEWRITER COM- PAN'Y, OF ILION, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

TYPEWRITING MACHINE.

Application filed November 11, 1925. Serial No. 68,411.

My invention relates to combined typewriting and computing machines, and it has for its object to provide an improved means whereby when the case shift mechanism of the typewriter is shifted from position to write numerals to position to write some other characters, then the computing mechanism will be disabled.

To the above end, my invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts, all of which will be fully set forth herein and particularly pointed out in the claims.

I have shown my invention applied to a Remington combined typewriting and computing machine of a kind that has been extensively manufactured and used for a number of years past, and which is therefore well-known in the art.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a side view, partly in section, and showing those parts of a combined typewriting and computing machine which are necessary to an understanding of my invention which is shown embodied therein.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary front elevation of the .same.

Figure 3 is a front to rear vertical section, on an enlarged scale, taken on the line 33 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a front View of the same. 7

Figure 5 is a left-hand side elevation of parts of the computing mechanism, including parts of my invention, portions of the mechanism being shown in section just inside the right-hand frame plate of the actuator.

Figure 6 is a transverse section on the line 66 of Figure 3 and looking in the direction of the arrow at said line.

In Figs; 1, 2 and 5 the parts are shown in normal position, and in Figures 3 and 4 they are shown in the position they occupy when the case shift key is depressed and the act-uating mechanism is disabled.

The Remington No. 11 typewriter comprises a base frame 10, corner posts 11, and a top plate 12 on which last are mounted the stationary rails 13 which, through roller bearings 14, support the paper carriage 15 having a platen 16 mounted therein. The platen 16 is mounted by means, not shown, for up and down case shifting movement, being adapted to be struck when in its normal lower position by lower case types 17, andwhen in its shifted position by upper case types 18 on front strike type bars 20.

The case shift mechanism is here shown of a'form common in Remington typewriters and which is shown and described in the patent toGeo. A. Seib, No. 1,479,326, Jan. 1, 1924. It comprises a shift frame in which the platen is mounted and which carries a Wheel, said frame and wheel bein not shown in the drawing, but the whee running on a transverse rail 21, mounted on two upright links 22, pivoted to lever arms 23, which lever arms are pivoted on a transverse shaft 24, mounted in the base frame 10.

The arms 23 are riveted at 25 to the bent-up ends of a heavy cross bar 26, which lies beneath the printing key levers of the machine and joins the two arms 23, one on each side of the machine. Projecting forward from each end of this bar 26 is a shift key lever 27, having on its forward end a shift key 28. The left-hand lever 27, shown in the drawing, has a shift-lock key 30 pivoted thereto at 31, controlled by a spring 32 and having a hook 33 adapted to be caught under a lug 34 to lock the shift key down. A spring 35 partially counter-balances the weight of the platen and the platen frame.

The letter keys of the machine are indicated at 36 and the numeral keys at 37. It may be mentioned that it is quite common in typewriting machines to put the dollar mark as the upper case character on the 4 key as indicated in Fig. 1, and the other numeral keys have various punctuation or other characters in upper case.

' The computing attachment comprises a main casting 38, secured to the top plate 12 by brackets 40, the usual truck 41 connected to the carriage by brackets 42, any desired number of vertical totalizers 43, and an actuator designated generally as 44, all as usual in these machines.

The numeral keys 37 are each connected by a link 45 With a so-called fan 46, having (Fig. 6) a hub 47, journaled on a transverse shaft 48. A goose-neck cam 50 has a hub 49 pivoted contiguous to the hub 47 of each fan, said goose-neck having lost motion connection with its associate fan, by means of a pin 51, projecting from the gooseneck into an opening 52 in the fan, the construction being such that when a numeral key is first depressed the fan has a certain amount of motion before the goose-neck begins to move. Afterwards the fan and goose-neck swing forward and downward together to the bottom of the key stroke, and on the up-stroke of the key the fan makes a part of its rear motion before the gooseneck begins to move upward.

Each goose-neck cam is adapted to act on one of a series of rollers 53, mounted in arms 54 which are secured to and spirally arranged on the differential shaft 55 of the machine; which shaft carries the gear sector which drives the master wheel, not shown.

The preliminary motion of the fan, before it starts the goose-neck into motion, is utilized to operate a universal bar 56 which by-arms 57 and 58 is mounted on and adapted to swing with a rock shaft 60, journaled in the frame plates of the actuator. The universal bar 56 normally occupies the position shown in Fig. 5 where it stands almost directly between the rock shaft 60 and the shaft 48 on which the fans are pivoted. In order to operate the universal bar, each fan has a projection 61, disposed behind the universal bar in such position that when the corresponding key is depressed this projection moves forward, engages said universal bar and swings it toward the front of the machine. The projection 61 has an outline concentric with the pivot of the fan. The universal bar is swung during the preliminary lost motion part of the stroke of the fan, and during that portion of the downstroke of the key when the goose-neck is operating the shaft 55, the universal bar is stationary, riding on said concentric portion. At about the end of the down stroke of the key the universal bar drops oif the rear end of said concentric portion, back to its normal position. On the up stroke of the key the projection 61 swings the universal bar back nearly to the position shown in Fig. 3, and holds it there while the goose-neck is being restored to normal position. At about the end of the up stroke of the key the universal bar falls off the front end of the projection 61 and drops back to the normal 0- sition shown in Fig. 5. This universal ar is controlled by a centering spring, not shown in the drawing.

The construction of the Wahl computing mechanism is such that the com uting mechanism will not operate effective y to register a number in the totalizer 43 unless the universal bar receives its forward swin on the down stroke of the key. The principal reason for this is that the gear sector, which is mounted on the differential shaft 55, is normally out of engagement with the pinions through which the said sector operates the master wheel and it is the forward swing of the universal bar which moves said sector into ear with said pinions.

Said universal bar also operates certain full stroke devices. To this end the righthand arm 58 is extended and given the form shown in Fig. 5. A long pawl 62 controlled by a spring 63 extends across the upper edges of all of the fans 46, being pivoted at its ends on trunnions 64. At its right-hand end this pawl has mounted thereon a lever having a forwardly extending arm 65 and a. downwardly extending arm 66, said arm 65 lying on the arm 58 of the universal bar. On the down stroke of the key the pawl 62 cooperates with ratchet teeth 67 on the fan, so as to prevent an up stroke of the key until said key has completed its down stroke.

Another long pawl 68, pivoted at 70 is pulled forward by the spring 63 and it has on its right-hand end an arm 71 which lies in front of the arm 58. Said pawl is adapted to cooperate with ratchet teeth 72 on the fans. On the down stroke of a key before the first ratchet tooth 72 reaches the pawl 68 the projection 61 will have swung the universal bar 56 forward and its arm 58 will have swung the pawl 68 forward out of the range of the teeth 72, but by this time the pawl 62 is acting on the teeth 67. When the universal bar drops back to normal position at the end of the down stroke the pawl 68 is drawn back toward the fan. Before the rearmost one of the teeth 67 engages the pawl 62 the universal bar will have been swung back to its rear position and the arm 58, acting on the arm 65, will have elevated the pawl 62 out of range of the teeth 67; but by this time the pawl 68 will be acting on the teeth 72.

The universal bar 56 also operates other devices, such as a carriage lock, not necessary here to be described, but all of them familiar to those skilled in the art. All of this mechanism is more fully shown and described in the patentto Wahl, No. 1,270,471, dated June 25, 1918. That patent, however, describes also certain cross footing mechanism which is not present in the machine shown in the drawmg, but which may be present as far as my invention is concerned.

The Wahl mechanism also includes a key arrester or single key mechanism. Each fan has a lug or arm 73, Fig. 3, ads. ted when a key is depressed to become we ged between two pieces 74, each ivoted at 75, in a pair of transverse frame ars 76 at the rear lower part of the actuator.

The computing mechanism also includes a disconnect key lever 77, consisting of a lever pivoted at 78 in a bracket 80, having a bent-off car 81 which is secured by screws 82 to the main computer casting or frame piece 38. I have not deemed it necessary to show all of this disconnect mechanism in all its outlines, it being familiar to those skilled in the art and being shown in the patent to Poole, No. 1,483,678, Feb. 12, 1924. The disconnect lever 77, by a certain cam action, controls a lever 83, pivoted at 84 to the bracket 80 and drawn rearward by a rather stiff spring 85. When the disconnect key or handle is in its upper position, shown in the drawings, it, by a cam action, holds the lever 83 in its forward inactive position and when the handle 77 is depressed, said lever 83 is drawn by spring 85 to a rear position. Said lever 83 has a tail or curved finger at its lower end which when drawn to its rear position presses against the universal bar 56 and swings it back to the inoperative position shown in Fig. 3, which is slightly farther backward and upward than when said universal bar is lifted by the projections 61 on the fans. If with the parts in the Fig. 3 position a key be depressed, the projection 61 will pass idly underneath the universal bar 56 Without operating said universal bar. The master wheel therefore will not be geared to the differential shaft 55 and said shaft will therefore rock idly without registering the number in the totalizer 43.

When the universal bar is in this extreme retracted or disconnect position the full stroke pawl 62 will be lifted by the arms 58 and 65 to inoperative position and the pawl 68 will also be swung to inoperative position. This last is due to the fact that the disconnect keys swings the universal bar 56 slightly beyond the position towhich the projection 61 moves it. The arm 66 of the pawl 62 at its lower end projects forward so that when the universal bar is moved a little beyond its ordinary rear position this arm engages the arm 71 and moves the pawl 68 to inoperative position.

' The key is thus free to be moved up and down like one of the letter keys without control from the full stroke mechanism.

The computing mechanism also includes a device for normally locking the differential shaft in its normal position. Said shaft has projecting therefrom an arm 86 having a notch 87 which when the parts are in the normal position shown 'in Fig. 5, is engaged by a latch 88 pivoted at 90 to the disconnect bracket. 80. Said latch is maintained in its latching position by means of a spring 91 connected at one end to a pin 92 projecting from the latch, and at the other end to a pin 93 projecting from the bracket 80. The latch 88 has a tail 94 in such position that normally on the down stroke of a key when the universal bar swings forward it strikes said tail and releases the differential shaft from the latch 88 just before the goose-neck begins to swing said shaft. As soop as the difierentialshaft returns tonorma this atch snaps into the notch. 87 and locks the shaft.

In order that the disconnect key 77 may release this latch 88 the latter is provided osition on the up stroke of the key passes.

the pin 51 does not interfere with the operawith an upstanding finger 95, and a pin 96 projects from the lever 83 through a slot 97 in the bracket 80 in position to en age said finger when the disconnect key is epressed and move the latch 88 to ineffective position.

As willbe seen from what has been said above, in this particular machine, the disconnect key 77 performs three functions,

(a) it swings the universal bar 56 to an inoperative position, (b) it disables the full stroke mechanism, and (0) it unlatches the differential shaft 55. My invention consists of an improved connection tothe case shift mechanism of the typewriter whereby said mechanism also performs the same three functions. It will be understood that the parts thus far described are comprised in the usual Remington combined typewriting and computing machines.

The principal part of my mechanism consists of a piece, plate or lever 100, pivoted on the rod or shaft 48, on which the fans and goose-necks are pivoted. This lever may be pivoted directly on the rod 48, but in the present instance I have found it more convenient to pivot it on the two contiguous hubs 47 and 49 of the fan and gooseneck respectively, of one of the numeral keys in the manner shown in Fig. 6; that is to say, the lever 100 is mounted on a hub 101, which hub is pivoted on the reduced ends of the two hubs 47 and 49. In the present instance these hubs 47 and 49 are those of the fan and goose-neck of the 2 key of the machine, these parts happening in this machine to be adjacent the ordinary disconnect mechanism above described. The front end portion of the lever 100 consists of a suitably shaped fin 'er slightly offset to the right, as shown at 1752, and adapted at its end to engage the pin 92 on the latch 88 to swing said latch to release position as shown in Fig. 3, inwhich figure the lever 100 is in operated position.

Said lever also has a portion thereof in the form of a nose or lug 103 adapted when the lever is operated as shown in Fig. 3 to engage the universal bar 56 and throw said universal bar to its extreme retracted or disconnect position. In the articular ma.- chine shown in the drawing this operation of the universal bar, acting through the arms necessary to disconnecting the computing mechanism.

.-. In order to avoid interference with and by the pin 51 the lever 100 is made with a concentric slot 104 through which said pin This slot is of such dimensions that tions of the lever 100 and on the other hand said lever does not interfere with the operation of the pin when the 2 key is struck.

The lever may be operatively connected with the case shift mechanism of the typewriter in various ways. As here shown, it has an upwardly and rearwardly directed arm to which at 106 is pivoted a link 107 which extends down behind the actuator and is connected at its lower end to the transverse bar 26 above described. As the link comes up behind the frame bars 76 it has to extend forward over the single key pieces 74 and this is conveniently accomplished by screwing the wire link 107 into a block 108, which extends forward over the pieces 74 and carries at its front end the pivot pin 106. A flat retaining spring 109 is riveted to the block 108 at 110. The link 107 passes through the holes in the typewriter framework and at its lower end passes through a hole in a bar or arm 111 secured by rivets or screws 112 to the cross bar 26 of the case shift mechanism. As shown in the present instance the wire 107 has nuts 113 screwed on to its lower end. The effective length of the link 107 can be regu- V lated by an adjustment of these nuts.

The whole construction is such that normally the forward portion of the lever 100 occupies its lower position shown in Fig. 5 or perhaps a little lower than shown, where it has no effect on the computing mechanism. But when either of the case shift keys is depressed and the bar 26 is rocked about the shaft 24, the link 107 rocks the lever 100 to the position shown in Fig. 3, where it swings the universal bar 56 to its extreme retracted position, releases the latch 88 and disables the full stroke mechanism, .all as has been hereinbefore described.

In some instances the Remington computing mechanism does not contain the arm 66, Flg. 5, and the mere rocking of the universal bar is not effective to release the lower full stroke pawl 68, and in those machines therelease key 77 is connected with a separate device to release said pawl. In case my invention is applied to one of those machines the lever 100 may be provided with a lug having the general outline indicated by the broken line 114 in Fig. 3. In the normal position of the parts this lug will be out of the path of the pawl 68, but when the lever 100 is operated it will directly engage the said pawl and swing it to its ineffective position shown in Fig. 3.

It will be seen that my improvement accomplishes the three necessary functions of the disconnect device by extremely simple and inexpensive means.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with key-operated pivoted pieces 46, a universal bar operated thereby, a differential member, and a latch for said member, of a disconnect lever pivoted concentrically with said pieces 46 and having a portion arranged to move said universal bar to an inoperative position and a portion adapted to release said latch; and means for operating said lever.

2. The combination with typewriting mechanism including numeral keys, means operated by said keys for printing numerals and other characters, case shift mechanism for causing said keys in one instance to print numerals and in another instance to print said other characters, and computing mechanism including pivoted pieces 46 operated by said numeral keys, a universal bar operated by said pieces 46, a differential member and a latch for said member, of a disconnect lever pivoted concentrically with said pieces 46 and havin a portion adapted to move said universal bar to an inoperative position and a portion adapted to release said latch; and an operating connection between said lever and said case shift mechanism.

3. The combination with typewriting mechanism including numeral keys, case shift mechanism for causing said numeral keys to print numerals and other characters depending on the operation of said case shift mechanism; and computing mechanism including key-operated parts, a universal bar operated by said key operated parts and movable to an inoperative position, a differential member, and a lock for said differential member, of a device in said computing mechanism and operated by said case shift mechanism -to move said universal bar to inoperative position and to release said lock.

4. The combination with typewriter numeral keys, printing mechanism. case shift mechanism to cause said printing mechanism to print numerals in one instance and other characters in another instance, a universal bar, a differential member, a latch for said differential member, and full stroke mechanism for said keys, of means whereby said case shift mechanism moves said universal bar to an inoperative position, releases said latch and disables said full stroke mechanism.

5. The combination with typewriting mechanism including keys and case shift mechanism, and computing mechanism including a universal bar, a differential device, a latch for said device, and full stroke mechanism, of a single lever operated by said case shift mechanism and operative to move said universal bar to an inoperative position, to release said latch and to disable said full stroke mechanism.

Signed at the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York this 10th day of November, A. D. 1925.

GEORGE w. BENZ. 

